When Unsubscribe really does not mean "Unsubscribe"…

Mortgagenewswatch.com was kind enough to send me a newsletter that I never subscribed to. Since it is not relevant to me and I was lazy to setup a rule to send future newsletters to “trash”, I thought I will unsubscribe. Of course, as most email newsletters, unsubscribe really does not work. The failure notice provided further instructions on how to reach the customer service – you have to fill a form or call them.

The idea is simple. You make it hard for someone to unsubscribe to your newsletter so that they may continue to be subscribers, albeit reluctantly. Then you can show advertisers that you have thousands of subscribers and charge a premium to advertise.

What they forget is that it leaves a bad taste with people as you introduced a new cost to deal with this. Time is the biggest scarcity in people’s lives. So if you are taking time away from them, you are an opportunity cost. It is hard to be liked by someone when you are a cost for them.